Disk drive suspensions commonly use a load beam and flexure assembly to carry a slider and read-write head adjacent a disk surface. These suspensions provide a pivot on the load beam or the flexure, or both, so that the slider can gimbal, or pivot in all directions. Gimbaling action allows the slider to rotate about its axis to follow disk contour and is very important to suspension performance. The pivot is conventionally defined by a dimple which is a rounded protuberance formed in the metal of the flexure of load beam. The dimple is used to apply a force to the slider from the load beam to position the slider at the desired height from the disk.
Formation of a dimple on a load beam is typically by stamping the semi-spherical shape in the load beam. Dimple formation requires surrounding support structure and this structure limits the volume of space around the dimple, while the need to deflect the dimple from the general plane of the load beam limits the height that can be achieved by the deflection. The flexure is attached to the load beam by laser weld or other means in a manner that the central part of the flexure, the flexure tongue, is in contact with the beam dimple, which permits the tongue, to which the slider is affixed, to pivot. In some case, the dimple is formed on the flexure tongue. Upon attaching the flexure to the load beam the flexure tongue will be able to pivot about the dimple.
It is also known to define a dimple by etching the load beam to define a stud but thinness of the load beam material imposes severe limits on the size of such studs, to below a desirable size.